“There you are,” Bella said as she and Amelia approached the bench and sat down, sandwiching her between them.
“Are you nervous for my brother to arrive?” Amelia asked, sweeping errant strands of hair up to the top of her head.
“Yes, but excited as well. Can you believe in a week I will be your sister and married to your brother?” Emma replied.
Giggles burst forth from all three of them. “You must promise us you will share.” Bella smiled and blushed, and clarified. “I mean, tell us everything about the marriage bed.”
“I cannot do that.” Emma gasped. “He is your brother. It would not be proper.”
“Well, if you won’t tell us, how will we know what to expect when we marry?” Amelia pouted.
“I suppose your mother will have a talk with you the morning of your wedding,” Emma explained, patting Amelia’s hand.
“Oh, I can just hear it now.” Bella imitated her mother’s voice almost perfectly. “Now my dear, you must let your husband have your body whenever he desires it. Your wedding night will hurt, and you will be mortified at the intimacy, but think nothing of it. It is a wife’s duty to surrender to her husband’s ministrations in the bedroom. Just grit your teeth, spread your legs, and think pleasant thoughts. It will be over soon. No man dallies long with his wife. That is what mistresses are for.”
Inside, Emma’s body burned with memories of the last time Thomas had been with her in his study. Her experience did not resemble anything Bella just described. And she was looking forward to learning more. “Perhaps I will have to explain how it truly is.”
Bella and Amelia both swung around to look at her––one with blue eyes the same as Thomas’s, the other with eyes of warm brown, but both seeking information.
“How do you know it is not as Bella explained?” Amelia asked, eyes wide in anticipation.
Trying not to blush, Amelia felt the heat sting her cheeks anyway as she remembered how Thomas had played her body to make it sing. “Well, I don’t know for certain, but that does not sound enjoyable at all.”
“You are right,” Bella said. “If a man can get pleasure from it, why cannot a woman? Who says a woman cannot enjoy the carnal pleasures of the marriage bed? Why, I think if the right man touched me down there, I would melt with pleasure.”
Amelia gasped. “Bella, respectable young ladies do not talk about their privates or about men touching them. It is indecent.” Then she grinned and her cheeks turned a subtle shade of pink. “Do you think they’ll touch us there?”
“Of course,” Bella laughed. “How else can they put their swizzle stick inside us and hope to make a baby?” Her eyes widened intuitively. “Has my brother . . . I mean . . . has he touched you there?”
Heat scorched Emma’s face and neck, telling all without words.
“He has,” Bella whispered, mouth open in shock. “Please, tell us…did it feel good? Did it hurt, and did you want to bury your face in shame? And please tell us, does my brother use his tongue when he kisses you?”
“Wait . . . please . . . wait,” Emma said as she tried to slow the pounding of her heart and the mortification that they had guessed. “All I can say is, if you find the right man, you will want him to touch you. You will not only want him to caress you all over, you will want to touch him as well.”
Amelia shook her head. “That is impossible. I would die of shame on the spot if a man touched me there. Or if I touched that thing between his legs.”
“Enough,” Emma laughed nervously. If this talk did not stop she would surely die of embarrassment. “Let’s go down by the water.”
“I think…,” Bella went on, ignoring her, “if Myles wanted to touch me I would let him.”
“No, you would not.” Amelia scolded her sister. “That would be scandalous.”
“Would you let your Captain Rycroft do it?” Bella asked.
“I . . . I don’t know.” Amelia crossed her arms under her breasts and huffed out loud, “Maybe if we were married, but not before.”
“We will see,” Bella added.
Just what Emma needed. Now she’d worry about Bella letting Myles take liberties with her person. Of course, since Myles had not shown any romantic interest in Bella, that should not be too hard. She’d always wanted sisters to share things with, and now she had them. They’d certainly shared. And though she was mortified, her heart could not be happier.
Later that afternoon, Emma’s intended, along with Myles and Amesbury, arrived on horseback with a coach following closely behind. Emma assumed the coach carried their valets and belongings. Watching them approach from the blue salon’s window, Emma’s stomach flip-flopped and her heart fluttered rapidly inside her rib cage.